Roots and Blues: A Celebration

• Age Range: 10 - 12 years

• Grade Level: 5 - 7

• 2012 CCBC Choices

• 2012 Notable Books for a Global Society

• 2011 School Journal Library Best Books of the Year

  For classroom and reading resources, click here.

SUMMARY

Through poems and poetic prose pieces, acclaimed children's author Arnold Adoff celebrates blues music. Tap your feet, sing a song, and get ready to learn about the magic of music.

Each chop of the ax is a beat, each step on the dirt ground is a melody. Each sound creates harmonies that preserve African American ancestors and their stories of hope and hardships. The power of blues music is extraordinary, cheerful, and spreads optimism to peoples’ hearts.

REVIEWS

"This exquisite collection of poems and paintings celebrates the history and culture of blues music."—School Library Journal

"In this visceral collaboration, Adoff and Christie honor the enduring legacy of blues music . . .This is a challenging, open-hearted collection with images and poems that bleed into one another, but also stand powerfully alone."—Publishers Weekly

"An incandescent, important work."—Kirkus Reviews

"Christie provides arresting and soul-stirring paintings that echo the poems here and add texture and harmony there, but Adoff’s poems are themselves things to be savored visually as well as out loud."—Booklist